An Easton man who helped bring down a $1.5 million a year drug ring in the Lehigh Valley was sentenced yesterday in Northampton County Court.

Elkin Dario Correa, 25, who had resided at Butler Arms Apartments where leaders of the operation would bring kilos of cocaine for preparation for sale, was given a jail term of one year less one day to two years less one day and was also ordered by Judge Kimberly McFadden to pay at $500 fine.

Correa, who entered a negotiated guilty plea to cocaine delivery, will be returned to Bucks County Prison to serve his sentence. He is being held there in protective custody.

Correa was arrested Feb. 16, 1995, in the parking lot of Dunkin Donuts, 1910 Stefko Blvd., Bethlehem, after he sold 249 grams of cocaine to an undercover state trooper.

He told authorities who busted the operation that sold 200 kilos of cocaine a year throughout the Lehigh Valley, that ringleaders Marcos Pena and Jose Vasquez would bring cocaine to his apartment, where it was inspected and prepared.

They then ordered Correa, who was paid $500 a week or more, to transport it to customers in a car he was given by Pena that had a hidden compartment for drugs and money.

Correa said that at their direction, he would make sales of cocaine that ranged in weight from one bag to 10 bags, each weighing 125 grams.

On Monday, Pena was given a state prison term of seven to 14 years, and Vasquez in May was sentenced to a three- to six-year term in a state lock-up.

In return for Correa's plea, prosecutors withdrew charges of cocaine possession, possession with intent to deliver cocaine and criminal conspiracy.